by Chai Shenoy
This summer highlighted many incidents of how our newly minted heroes, the sports athletes, can perpetuate violence against their partner and family without much media sensation or reprimand. One such incident happened this June.
I was sitting in a large conference room in Minnesota attending a federally funded conference on domestic violence. In the conference's final presentation, the lecturer began by asking, "Did anyone else notice the headline and get the chills?" He was referring to the death of a famous WWE wrestler, Chris Benoit, who killed his wife and child before taking his own life. What made most of the conference attendees infuriated was that the original media reports and the WWE speculated that his death was somehow related to an apparent steroid overdose and/or depression. There was no mention of the wrestler's previous gender-based violence, including the red flags of stalking and threats.
Juxtaposing Benoit to another big headline this summer, there is a stark difference. Michael Vick, a very popularfoorpball player, was recently arrested for dog fighting. The NFL took swift actions (any action at all should be applauded) to freeze Vick's pay for an indefinite period of time. But, I kept thinking, why doesn't the NFL do the same thing for those guilty in abusing their partner? Why don't they (the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB) sanction players who have been found guilty of incidents of domestic violence and/or child abuse like they did with Vick?
Chai is a feminist, activist, lawyer, and avid reader who is based in New York City. She has been working in the anti-violence movement for eight years. She blogs here.By not taking actions against athletes who are found by the court to be abusive to their partner, these sporting agencies are turning a blind eye to family violence. They are sending mixed messages to their players and to the general public, particularly young people who look up to these athletes.
Picture: via pwilley's flickr account.
